It is common practice for programmed data processing systems to provide help to an operator or user in response to a request for help. Such help is displayed to the operator at a workstation and frequently replaces the previous display screen entirely. Help may consist of actual help information or of a menu or index of possible help from which the operator is required to select an item. Such indices can be very extensive and laborious to search in themselves.
So called contextual help is known in which the help provided is not merely general to the current screen or application but is specific to the actual position of a cursor or pointer on the screen. Three related articles describing a contextual help system by R E Berry, S E Johnson et al. are found in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin (Vol. 7, No. 10B, March 1985 at pages 6126, 6127 and 6128). These articles show the provision of contextual help in windows on a display screen. Two types of Help panel are possible, Active and Passive. The Active panel allows the operator to make further unspecified selections from within the panel. However, no other provision for knowing what alternative help is available is made.
Another contextual help system making use of windowing capabilities is described in European patent application 0185845 A2, entitled "Help placement on a screen for a computer user". Help messages are displayed in a window which is so positioned in areas of the screen as to minimise the overlapping or obscuring of the screen content.
Also known in the provision of help to a computer user is the concept of multi-level help in which, if the initially displayed information (first level help) is inadequate, the user may request further more detailed information (second level help). Examples of systems employing multiple levels of help can be found in an article by P D Koeller et al in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin entitled "Improved method for Help Lookups" (Vol. 29, No. 1. June 1986, P 291) and in European published patent application 0190419 A2 entitled "Method for providing an on-line help facility for interactive information handling systems".